Evolving Human Nutrition: Implications for Public Health

Stanley J. Ulijaszek · Neil Mann · Sarah Elton

Oct 2012 · Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology Book 64 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

While most of us live our lives according to the working week, we did not evolve to be bound by industrial schedules, nor did the food we eat. Despite this, we eat the products of industrialization and often suffer as a consequence. This book considers aspects of changing human nutrition from evolutionary and social perspectives. It considers what a 'natural' human diet might be, how it has been shaped across evolutionary time and how we have adapted to changing food availability. The transition from hunter-gatherer and the rise of agriculture through to the industrialisation and globalisation of diet are explored. Far from being adapted to a 'Stone Age' diet, humans can consume a vast range of foodstuffs. However, being able to eat anything does not mean that we should eat everything, and therefore engagement with the evolutionary underpinnings of diet and factors influencing it are key to better public health practice.

About the author

Stanley Ulijaszek is Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Oxford and Director of the Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity. His work on nutritional ecology and anthropology has involved fieldwork and research in Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands and South Asia, while his interests in dietary transitions have led him to examine the evolutionary basis of obesity.

Neil Mann is Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry and head of the Food Science department at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. He has worked extensively on the nutritional biochemistry of fatty acids and has led several nutritional clinical trials investigating the role of altered macronutrient dietary balance on diseases related to western lifestyle, including acne and diabetes.

Sarah Elton is Reader in Anatomy at the Hull York Medical School. She works on the ecological context for human evolution, with a focus on primate morphology, biogeography, ecology and evolution. Alongside her research into primates, she has written on evolutionary approaches to human diet, reproduction and medical education.